Building a Future from Preserving the Past

Dr. Mila K. Marshall CNW Staff Writer

While the Obama Center is getting lots of attention from lakefront developers and investors a steady pace has been set for the communities further south. Cultural institutions are anchors for revitalizing community economies and the fears of gentrification echoing throughout Woodlawn and South Shore are real. Development in Black Chicago seems synonymous with unaffordable communities.

Are there examples of development without displacement? Can we build infrastructure, and build Black businesses while building confidence that the investments will return in the form of healthy, affordable communities for Black Chicagoans? The answer appears to be yes.

Cultural institutions in the Black community are bridges to the past and pathways to new futures.“We are the epicenter of venture philanthropy and cultural economic development,” says David A. Peterson Jr. As President and Executive Director of the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum (10406 S. Maryland) which was founded in 1995 by Dr. Lyn Hughes. It is America’s only Black labor history museum.

“Our collective work has spawned an entire neighborhood into development,” shared the local leader.

The concept of venture philanthropy sums up the type of investments into Black communities which draw upon the stories of Black history, innovation, talent and creativity.

“Venture philanthropy is the foundation of what our neighborhood can and will be when we use our history, heritage and culture as a means for social and economic development,” shared Peterson.

His bold vision is rebuilding the community, it is calculated and…it’s working. The museum welcomes guests from around the world but it isn’t just about helping people peer into the past. Guests are a part of true history in the making. Chicago is notorious for being a union town. Organizing seems second nature for the nation’s segregated cities, unions and benefit Blacks and Hispanics the most according to the Center for American Progress. Job stability, pension plans, life and health insurance can lead to greater savings and help mobilize Black workers to greater wealth generation. Peterson is making sure not only to tell the story of the Black labor movement but to leverage the institution’s cultural fingerprint to transform the Pullman Historic District into a world-class local economy for us, by us.

“The story that everyone is so passionately interested in is the story of the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters or the Pullman Porters. Our niche is to humanize these brothers and help people understand through our programming and storytelling we have galvanized interest in the Pullman Porters to be seen not as servants… we teach people that their role was much bigger than a few gentlemen working on a train,” said Peterson.

The 28-year-old cultural institution along with other partners organized and lobbied former President Obama to proclaim what was previously known as the Pullman National Monument, the Pullman National Historical Park.

“We believe nonprofit work related to cultural economic development SHOULD spawn investment. The story of the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters is being preserved and interpreted. It has generated an enormous amount of investment. Right now we have a $30 million development plan slated for a block of vacant land, the foundation of which is the expansion of the museum to continue sharing the story of Black labor.” - David

Peterson Jr.

The Pullman Porters Black labor tourism district will be the world’s first and only and includes; the Jesse Jackson Civil Rights Wing, Jesse White Black Labor Research Library, the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters Ladies Auxiliary Women’s History Museum and Pullman Porters Row .

“We want to create a space where people can become shareholders and not just donors, we want to create opportunities for people to invest into this neighborhood and see a return,” said Peterson.

What Peterson and the community IS displacing is doubt. What they ARE building is trust.